If you don’t already, you need to subscribe, follow, read and watch Gary Vaynerchuk on anything and everything.(In no way am I being paid, reimbursed, bribed, or anything else to tell you that! I’m merely trying to tell you FOLLOW THIS AMAZING MAN if you want AMAZING inbound marketing tips, digital marketing tips, personal branding tips, etc.!)

I know for me, personally, I hit a link – a blog – a website – and if it’s informative enough, or seems ‘hip’ enough – I’ll usually follow through on their immediate ‘call to action’ (as every inbound site of course has, right?) and give them my email address, and subscribe to their newsletter. By the 2nd round of emails (if I even make it past the first email they send) – I’m 99% likely to hit that unsubscribe button. While they drew me in enough to get me to give them my email – they have failed to hold my interest. Whether it’s because their emails are boring, they failed to correctly personalize (i.e. my experience with Ebates.com), or whatever reason – VERY FEW newsletters that I sign up for, do I ever read the first – even fewer make it past the 2nd email.

The amazing Gary Vee recently sent an email out… sharing an old video he once did, titled ‘One is Greater than Zero‘. If you haven’t watched it; watch it now!

But this is something I have been ‘doing, believing, and preaching’ for years. Because while I measure everything (after all, I’m an inbound marketer!), I purposefully do not focus on the amount of views or leads or comments or shares or retweets or bounces or anything on my own personal domain. Because, I know that whatever I am doing? It’s working. It may not be going viral – but it is helping those who may not know much about digital or inbound (i.e. my most successful posts have been the ones where I wrote merely tips to help businesses grow; i.e. 6 Steps to Organically Growing Your Social Media Following or (Competitor) Ignorance Ain’t Bliss Honey… or What is “Inbound Marketing” aka – “Sell Me This Pen” or Stalking Not Necessary… How to Stay on Top of Your Competition!) I didn’t write those to attract, or count, or convert or build an empire – I wrote those merely to share and help others. Others who may never become clients. Others who may never spend $1 with me. But I wrote it for them – and not for my own purpose, not for my own numbers, not for my own gains. And yet, those (and other similar blog posts) are the reasons I’ve landed new clients. Are the reason I’ve attracted employers and opportunities that I thought were “way out of my league”.

And yet – I write other posts – where only 1 person reads it; and they even bounce. Or I get 10 visitors, and only 1 comment. Or I get no comments.

But I still write.

Because ‘The Power of ONE’ is influence enough. Maybe that ‘one’ will become my next huge client. Maybe that ‘one’ will refer someone to my blog, or to me. OR maybe, just maybe that ‘one’ was about to give up on their business – on their own success and growth – and instead learned something unique and valuable enough to help keep them going.

Don’t write or create content merely for the numbers. I promise you – if what you share is valuable – you will get more than 1. But even if you write the most AMAZING blog post, even if you create the most AMAZING video, graphic, ebook, etc – and it only gets 1 view/click/download – you never who that ‘one’ is.

Social Media is a wonderful mufti-faceted innovative way for businesses to grow and develop leads. It helps search engine optimization, it helps build brand awareness, engage with clients and/or potential clients, and more! And with the changes in Facebook in recent years as well as many of the other major social media platforms – the success and growth of your business on these platforms, all depends on your audience reach.

So how do you grow your following without paying for advertisements and clicks? Implement each of the steps below and I personally promise you will see a drastic increase in your reach!

Connect(and actively engage!) with audience – both fans and similar businesses (i.e. like businesses in your local area).

Ask engaging questions

“What’s your favorite website”

“What are the first 3 websites you visit each morning”

etc. etc. etc. etc.

Respond when people comment/post on your page, etc.

Respond to other business page’s!

Share/Re-tweet valuable/unique/interesting info, not just business specific

Utilize Hash-tags!!!

Make it personal

“Happy 11 years to XYZ Business today… #TBT”

Happy Birthday to our Employee, Sam McGuire (i.e.)

Share photos! Share your culture. Instagram it! HASHTAG it.

Repeat. Re-post. Re-purpose.

Make interesting blog posts into infograms and/or graphics for Facebook/twitter/etc.

Turn a blog post into a podcast

Share it on Facebook.

Track/Measure when your followers are most likely to engage with you – make sure you are posting valuable info (or re-sharing,etc) through out the day, but especially at these times.

Share info for potential clients – not just current clients (or those in the same industry as you). Ideally social media will attract other businesses/potential leads to hire ImageWorks (or whatever business you’re managing the social media of).

Don’t forget to track and measure your growth! Both Twitter and Google have free insights and analytic ‘s for you to utilize when measuring your reach and fans/followers!

I remember meeting with the infamous Matthew Roda of Roda Marketing – when he had asked me (after reading my Lancaster, PA edition of Digital Marketing Websites…. wha?) if he thought I was searching for the same terminology that others ‘not in the field’ would be searching for.

In the moment – I thought of course?! What small – mid – ( or even large) sized business that needs digital marketing efforts doesn’t look up things like “Digital Marketing” or (internet/online/some variation of such). However, the reality is, Matthew might have been onto something… Or AT LEAST, I’m hoping… Because as it turns out? South Carolina might not be a haven for digital marketing.

But alas, as always – here’s what I was looking for:

Responsive Website Template

Social Media– Links to share, and links to company pages

Content– The ability to manage & create engaging content

And how did ‘South Carolina” measure up? (Or some of the major metropolitan areas within since the term South Carolina wasn’t so … helpful….)?